ASPRS Announces Russell G. Congalton as 2012 SAIC Estes Memorial Teaching Award Winner Teaching Award was inaugurated in 2003 and is named in honor of Professor John E Jack Estes teacher mentor scientist and friend of the American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing ASPRS This award is designed to recognize individual achievement in the promotion of remote sensing and GIS technology and applications through educational efforts Award recipients are chosen based on documented excellence in education teaching mentoring and training The recipient receives a presentation plaque and a 2 000 cash award Congalton s research focuses on spatial data uncertainty accuracy analysis and the application of remote sensing methods to natural resource science issues Congalton has a long history of achievement in educational aspects of remote sensing and other geospatial science areas In addition to his university teaching responsibilities and graduate advising in remote sensing and GIS Congalton served as the Land Cover Principal Investigator for the NSF GLOBE Program as the ASPRS National Workshop Director and currently serves as Editor in Chief of Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing PE RS Other editorial work incudes Associate Editorship of Remote Sensing and GIS and previously the Northern Journal of Applied Forestry Congalton has been very involved in the leadership of ASPRS serving in several senior positions in the Society at both the National and Regional levels He served as President in 2004 2005 and was elected as a Fellow of ASPRS in 2007 Congalton is the recipient of numerous professional awards including ASPRS Presidential Citations Outstanding Service Awards several Best Paper awards and the University of New Hampshire Graduate Faculty Mentor Award The Award with funding provided by Science Applications International Corporation SAIC through the ASPRS Foundation will be presented on Wednesday March 21 at the ASPRS 2012 Annual Conference in Sacramento California Posted 2 6 12 Click Here to Report a Problem

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ASPRS Announces Dr. Franz Leberl as the Winner of the 2012 Outstanding Technical Achievement Award Award OTAA Leberl founder of Vexcel Corporation in Boulder Colorado 1985 and Vexcel Imaging GmbH Austria 1993 manufacturer of the UltraCam Digital Large Format Aerial Camera was selected in recognition of his contribution to the development of the UltraCam large format digital aerial camera In naming the winner for this award ASPRS President Gary Florence said After a thorough review of each of the nominees submitted for this award the selection committee unanimously determined that Dr Leberl was the obvious choice as the inaugural winner for this award The Awards Committee and I are very pleased to have been involved in the launching of this new and very prestigious award The purpose of the ASPRS Outstanding Technical Achievement Award is to reward the developers of specific breakthrough technology which causes major advances in the practice of photogrammetry remote sensing or geographic information systems in the United States The OTAA Committee consists of a panel of judges composed of the ASPRS President and the Directors of the six ASPRS technical Divisions This Committee reviewed each nomination using the following rating criteria Practicality i e overall effectiveness Economic Impact i e measurable efficiencies Scientific Impact i e advance the Science of Photogrammetry Remote Sensing and GIS Originality i e one of a kind General Interest i e will it be used extensively and Overall Presentation i e elegance of the design The award consists of a silver presentation plaque mounted on a walnut wood panel plus a cash award of 5 000 00 The presentation of the Award will take place at the Installation of Officers and Awards meeting held during the ASPRS 2012 Annual Conference scheduled for March 19 23 2012 in Sacramento California Posted 1 9 2012 Click Here to Report a Problem on this Page Report a Problem Please

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ASPRS Survey Finds Hiring in the Geospatial Industry Continues Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing ASPRS are currently hiring for jobs within the geospatial industry ASPRS recently conducted a survey of 129 ASPRS Sustaining Member career websites and determined that in the month of November at least 73 ASPRS Sustaining Member companies agencies had job postings on their websites that consisted of positions ranging from entry level jobs to high level executive positions We are very excited with these statistics said Brian Murphy Vice Chair of the ASPRS Sustaining Members Council While the national and local media continue to saturate the airwaves with reports on high unemployment we feel that these survey results provide a particularly positive outlook for students and individuals who might be seeking jobs within the geospatial industry ASPRS Sustaining Members consist of private and publically traded firms academic institutions non profit organizations and government agencies ranging in size from a few individuals to hundreds of thousands of employees Many of these organizations provide services that include sensor and software development aerial mapping photogrammetry GIS consulting data processing photointerpretation lidar surveys research and development topographic mapping teaching and more A list consisting of ASPRS Sustaining Member organizations that are currently hiring and hyperlinks to their respective career websites is accessible to ASPRS members through the website at http www asprs org Classified Ads and click on Virtual Career Expo For more information on becoming an ASPRS individual member visit http www asprs org Join Now For firms or organizations interested in becoming an ASPRS Sustaining Member please visit http www asprs org Join Now Corporate Sustaining Membership html ASPRS currently offers complimentary membership for individuals experiencing economic hardships For more information contact members asprs org Click Here to Report a Problem on this Page Report a Problem Please complete all required fields Your Name Invalid Input

LAS 1.4 Specification Approved by ASPRS Board since its inception in 2001 The most significant of the new features include Expansion of the Class field from 32 to 256 classes Well Known Text WKT encoding for coordinate reference system designation Support for scanner designation for multiple sensor laser systems such as mobile mappers Support for up to 15 return pulses for discrete pulse systems waveform support was added at release 1 3 Maximum file size increased from 4 GB to a theoretical file size of 18 Exabytes ASPRS has been very proactive in accommodating the needs of the lidar community said James Plasker ASPRS Executive Director This latest update addresses the rapidly changing capabilities of lidar hardware as well as recognizing the needs of the data processing side of the technology The adoption of WKT as the standard method of representing coordinate reference systems brings LAS in line with evolving GIS standards and ensures a method of accurately representing both horizontal and vertical references The expansion to 256 classes will allow more robust representation of complex collection environments such as electric transmission line modeling ASPRS President Gary Florence added I am very pleased not only with the outcome but with the overall public comment and review process The ASPRS LAS Working Group effectively resolved several contentious issues in a manner supportive of the broader community Florence also commended ASPRS Lidar Division Director Lewis Graham for his excellent leadership of the overall process as well commended the many Working Group members who devoted themselves to this effort The LAS version 1 4 specification was approved by the ASPRS Board of Directors on November 14 2011 and is available for immediate use The full specification can be downloaded from the ASPRS website at http www asprs org LAS Specification Posted November 2011 Click Here to Report a Problem on

FOR YOUR INFORMATION Skip to content Home News Resources Press Releases FOR YOUR INFORMATION Press Releases FOR YOUR INFORMATION Details Created on 22 August 2011 Last Updated on 03 May 2012 ASPRS SERVERS WILL BE OFFLINE FOR MAINTANANCE The ASPRS servers will be temporarily offline for maintenance for 24 36 hours beginning at 3 30 pm Eastern Time on Friday October 21st This will affect any function requiring access to the database such as the search for certified professionals Sustaining Members Region and Division rosters etc It will also affect the ability of Members to login to register for meetings or webinars purchase books from the Bookstore or update your member information Thank you for your patience as we undergo this required maintenance Click Here to Report a Problem on this Page Report a Problem Please complete all required fields Your Name Invalid Input Email Address Invalid Input What Problem are you reporting Broken Image Broken Link Spelling Other Issue Invalid Input Additional Comments Invalid Input Please enter these 4 NUMBERS in the box Refresh the Code Invalid Input For overall comments on the site in general please submit comments in our comment form ASPRS Online Home Certification ASPRS Foundation Students Membership Information

LAS 1.4 Draft Specification Released by ASPRS several new ASPRS standard classes associated with roads and electrical transmission Extension of the Scan Angle field to 2 bytes to support finer angle resolution Addition of a Sensor Channel bit field to support multi sensor mobile mapping systems Addition of Well Known Text WKT definitions for Coordinate Reference Systems Addition of an Overlap bit to allow indicating pulses in the overlap region while maintaining the class definition Other minor changes Compatibility An LAS 1 4 file cannot be read by a LAS reader that predates LAS 1 4 This is standard practice in commercial software development The individual writers of LAS input output libraries are encouraged to design each new LAS version reader to be backward compatible with prior LAS releases The LWG considers it an error for a software program to ignore the minor version in the LAS header There are several developers of Open Source libraries who argued to make LAS 1 4 files readable by LAS1 3 and prior readers if the LAS file contained only point records that were compatible with prior LAS version LAS 1 3 impersonation This subject was extensively discussed within the LWG Our decision was against this desire because of the extreme difficulty of software support that such a scheme would present to vendors of commercial software The problematic scenario is a LAS 1 3 reader that simply crashes when reading a LAS 1 4 file with new point record types It should be noted that the LWG has never made any statements regarding forward compatibility of the format It would be akin to expecting PowerPoint 2003 to read a PowerPoint 2007 file it can t The LWG does not intend to revisit this issue during the comment period A Discussion of Openness of the LAS Format During our last revision cycle the LWG fielded some questions regarding the openness of the LAS format This led to the discovery that there really is no universal definition of open when it comes to either software or data specifications LAS being the latter Thus rather than debate this point we simply state the facts surrounding LAS LAS is developed and revised by a working group committee the LAS Working Group LWG of the Lidar Division of the ASPRS The LWG comprises a core group of companies who create lidar hardware and or lidar software The development and revision is closed in the sense that the LWG members are the only participants during revision development portion of the cycle and outside commentary is not sought on interim iterations The LWG does of course listen to outside input Thus you can see that the primary purpose of LAS is to ensure that commercial off the shelf hardware and software work well in heterogeneous production exploitation environments The LAS format itself is owned and copyrighted by the ASPRS The ASPRS supplies the standard at no cost in a fully open manner free download from the ASPRS website Any software producer is permitted to implement this format

Draft Guidelines for the Procurement of Commercial Geospatial Products Released for Comment is considered DRAFT FOR REVIEW and is being published at this time to encourage wide dissemination and comment A draft copy of the Guidelines for Procurement of Commercial Geospatial Products is available online at http www asprs org a society divisions ppd products CGPG public review draft 1 doc and appears in the June 2011 issue of Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing PE RS Interested parties are encouraged to submit comments by email to guidelines asprs org no later than January 15 2012 The current plan is to review all comments and finalize the document for ASPRS Board approval at its March 23 2012 meeting The Guidelines were prepared by a working committee within the ASPRS Professional Practice Division Chaired by Charles Mondello of Pictometry International Corp the committee includes representation from the commercial sector state and federal government The intent of the Guidelines is to provide clarification on what constitutes a commercial geospatial mapping product and how procurement of products is differentiated from procurement of professional services In fall 2009 ASPRS adopted the Guidelines for Procurement of Professional Aerial Imagery Photogrammetry Lidar and Related Remote Sensor based Geospatial Mapping Services which provides recommendations on the methodology of procuring professional services This document updated procurement guidelines that were first adopted in 1986 The need for differentiating best practices for the procurement of professional services technical services and commercial geospatial products has led to the ongoing efforts in guideline development Once approved by the ASPRS Board these Guidelines will be paired with the 2009 Professional Services Guidelines to form a complete package of procurement guidelines for the industry Posted 8 11 2011 Click Here to Report a Problem on this Page Report a Problem Please complete all required fields Your Name Invalid Input Email Address Invalid Input What Problem are you

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ASPRS Encourages Adoption of the National Land Imaging Program in supporting this program in that discussion On July 26 2011 Ms Anne Castle Assistant Secretary for Water and Science U S Department of the Interior released the following email message on the status of NLIP As most of you probably know the President s 2012 budget request included a new account for National Land Imaging within the USGS budget framework The requested funding for this account totals 99 817 million consisting of 40 15 for continuing land imaging work that has been regularly occurring in USGS 13 35 million for the LDCM Landsat 8 ground system development in preparation for the LDCM launch in December 2012 and 48 0 million for beginning development of Landsat 9 The House bill for the 2012 budget H R 2584 which has passed the Appropriations Committee and will be debated this week on the House floor proposes 51 817 for these same work areas reducing the LDCM funding from 13 35 to 11 667 and eliminating any funding for commencement of Landsat 9 The Committee declined to establish a new separate account for the National Land Imaging Program The House report on the bill states The Committee supports the continuation of the Landsat Program beyond Landsat 8 and urges the Administration to submit a fiscal year 2013 budget that does not offset increases for Landsat with decreases elsewhere in the Survey s budget In 2007 the Bush Administration formulated a comprehensive strategy designated the National Land Imaging Program NLIP to ensure long term stability for moderate resolution satellite imaging see August 2007 report released by the Executive Office of the President A Plan for A U S National Land Imaging Program available for download at http www landimaging gov fli iwg report print ready low res pdf The Obama Administration has embraced and reinforced that strategy by seeking funding within the Department of the Interior DOI budget to ensure the implementation of NLIP ASPRS has long agreed that establishing the DOI as the permanent manager of NLIP will ensure long term program stability since DOI has a vested interest in the future of land imaging clearly defined requirements for the data extensive experience in using the data and an excellent track record of partnering with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration NASA and the private sector on the current Landsat systems The Landsat series of satellites has provided nearly 40 years of standardized multispectral images of the Earth at moderate spatial resolution Landsat has been by far the world s most successful remote sensing program dedicated to civilian land observations from space No other data set collected by the U S or any other nation allows for the assessment of continuous human interactions with the land so effectively over such a long period of time NLIP will continue the stellar record of this satellite series The demand for moderate resolution satellite imagery never ceases Its numerous operational uses include defense intelligence community support disaster assessment mineral exploration water rights monitoring crop estimates wildfire